Ideological Denial
1 o'clock, January 29, 2003
I've got a post I've been wrestling with, on the question of what point I see in this whole speculative fiction business. (And on Jon Hansen's question, too.) Maybe I'll get to it in a couple of days — though I really should be writing instead.
In the mean time, though, I'd just like to call out this insight from China Miéville:
Even the most escapist fantasy, like Tolkien - It may be escapist, but it can't escape. Fiction that thinks it's escapist is among the most intensely ideological there is, because it denies that it's actually about reality, in a mediated way.
(From an interview with Infinity Plus, courtesy of Greg, courtesy of Toby Buckell.)
I could add that there's another sort of intensely ideological fiction, escapist fantasy's shadow brother: fiction that denies it's trying to escape; fiction that claims to be about reality and denies that it's mediating that reality.
I'm trying not to write either kind, and I think Mr. Miéville is, too — though that's not to say either of us is trying not to be ideological.
I'll be interested to hear your musings, David.
Part of the appeal of SF in particular, for me, is its experimental, exploratory nature.